REVEALED: Why Omeruo Was Dropped From Super Eagles Squad Vs Zambia

The exclusion of Kasimpasa’s Nigeria defender Kenneth Omeruo from the Super Eagles squad in the last two games has been down to the impressive performance of Chidozie Awaziem and Uche Agbo for their respective clubs and Omeruo’s slow start to the new European season, a team source has revealed to Completesportsnigeria.com.

Agbo has played eight of Standard Liege’s 11 league games while Awaziem has made five appearances for Nantes and he has been crucial to his club recording three straight wins in Ligue 1.

Omeruo on his part had to wait three weeks into the season before making a loan switch back to Turkey from Chelsea. He only made his first start (second appearance) for Kasimpasa last weekend.

It was gathered from a team source that Omeruo is still reckoned with due to his wealth of experience and commitments but he must work harder at club level to get back into Gernot Rohr’s reckoning and dislodge either Leon Balogun or William Troost-Ekong in the heart of the defence.

Omeruo was an unused substitute in his last invitation to the Super Eagles team where they lost 2-0 to South Africa. He was on standby for the World Cup qualifiers against Cameroon in early September but was left out of the squad for the October 7 fixture against Zambia.

“All the players invited are playing actively for their clubs while those not considered are either still adjusting to their new team or not playing regularly,” the source told Completesportsnigeria.com.

“He (Omeruo) was inactive for the first few weeks of the season before his move to Turkey and had to wait another two weeks to make his first appearance. The list was on merit.

“Now that he has started playing he has a good chance of returning but he will face other defenders to reclaim his place in the team.”

Omeruo’s only two appearances for the Super Eagles in the 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign were against Zambia and Algeria on matchdays 1 and 2 respectively.

COMMENTS

i concur with ur opinion about musa, i dont know y dey keep calling dis lad at d detriment of better and inform strikers like henry onyekuru, dennis bonaventure, peter olayinka, paul onuachu just to mention few, wen asked about d inclusion of musa he said he could use him counter attacking football, and also cuz he is well respected by young players in d team, for me i dont see dis two as enuf reasons to drop henry cuz if it were to be pace, onyekuru is no1 we av presently as his pace is so electrifying tat pundits in belgium can not do without making mention of it on weekly basis, if it is respect from younger members of the team why didnt he call okocha or kanu to come out of retirement?
its high time d technical committee looks into dis of players invited to national duty.

It is very true our bench has to be riched as good as first eleven with the kind players Nigeria is having now but let exercise patient, l believe if Nigeria qualify things would change before world cup proper.

Kenneth omeruo havent progressed as expected after afcon 2013. I think the problem most of our players do have is the decision they make when changing clubs and their agents dont help as well. Leaving the english championship to turkey was a very bad move for a developing defender who need the right coach,league and team to nurture his talent. The case is different with awaziem who moved to france from fc porto and have improved alot under the tutelage of ranieri. I forsee awaziem taking over omeruo’s place in the super eagles in no distant time. He has been a revelation in the french league with good performances and rumour has it that liverpool are interested in snapping him from porto. Awaziem is the future of super eagles defence.